LOUISVILLE – Yum! Brands announced the opening of the first Pizza Hut restaurant in the Kurdistan Region of Northern Iraq in the Majidi Mall in Erbil. The franchise partner is Al Kout Food Co. Al Kout Food Co. is owned by Kout Food Group which is located in Kuwait.

The restaurant seats 120 diners, and the menu, which is in Kurdish, features appetizers, pizzas and flatbreads, pasta, salads, desserts and drinks, the company noted.

“We’re pleased to be able to bring Pizza Hut to Iraq as part of the explosive growth for our brand around the world,” said Scott Bergren, CEO, Pizza Hut and Chief Innovation Officer, Yum! Brands. “While Pizza Hut’s footprint is already significantly larger than our nearest competitor, we’ve still just scratched the surface of global growth. We are taking the powerful Pizza Hut Red Roof icon and accelerating the development of our brand across the Delivery, Express, and Dine-In channels around the world as only we can.”

Al Kout Food Co. plans to open four additional Pizza Hut locations in 2014 including three in Erbil and one in Sulaymaniyah.

“Kout Food Group is proud of its partnership with Yum! and the success of launching the first Pizza Hut Dine-In store in Iraq,” said Fadwa Al-Homaizi, Managing Director, Al Kout Food Co. and co-founder and chairwoman, Kout Food Group, Kuwait. “Our utmost priority is to serve our customers with excellent products and services. This is in line with our strategy of expansion in Iraq. More and more customers are visiting the restaurant to test the high-quality Pizza Hut products and to enjoy the dine-in experience.”